Reputation Management Is PR Playing Defense

Trust signals are the messages you send to buyers and other audiences to convince them, consciously or unconsciously, that they can trust you. 

That's playing offense -- but what about when your brand has to play defense?

That's the definition of reputation management.

You need a reputation management strategy when:

• Your customers are posting one-star Google reviews;
• Your employees are trashing you on Glassdoor;'
• A lawsuit against your company appears high in your branded search results; 
• A negative news story accuses you of incompetent management or various misdeeds; or
• You or one of your employees gets "canceled" on Twitter for a bad decision or poor choice of words.

I had the chance recently to chat with the folks at Reputation Rhino about the challenges of managing your reputation in today's online environment.

An excerpt:

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Definitely harder. It’s a 24-hour news cycle, and it’s much more difficult to fight against misinformation. Rumors and conspiracy theories take on a life of their own. Look at the ridiculous Wayfair conspiracy theory trying to connect the company to child trafficking, for example. In an earlier era, it wouldn’t have seen the light of day. Now it’s all over social media and Wayfair has to put out statements to try to tamp down these baseless accusations.

Read the full article.

And read about the pros and cons of reputation management agencies in my article at Business Wire.